{Margaret}
(_Plaintively, looking from one man to the other._) Men are so strangely and wonderfully made. What am I to do with the pair of you? Why won"t you reason together like rational human beings?
{Chalmers}
(_Bitterly gay, rising to his feet._) Yes; let us come and reason together. Be rational. Sit down and talk it over like civilized humans. This is not the stone age. Be rea.s.sured, Mr. Knox. I won"t brain you. Margaret--
(_Indicating chair,_) Sit down. Mr. Knox--
(_Indicating chair._) Sit down.
(_All three seat themselves, in a triangle._) Behold the problem--the ever ancient and ever young triangle of the playwright and the short story writer--two men and a woman.
{Knox}
True, and yet not true. The triangle is incomplete. Only one of the two men loves the woman.
{Chalmers}
Yes?
{Knox}
And I am that man.
{Chalmers}
I fancy you"re right.
(_Nodding his head._) But how about the woman?
{Margaret}
She loves one of the two men.
{Knox}
And what are you going to do about it?
{Chalmers}
(_Judicially._) She has not yet indicated the man.
(_Margaret is about to indicate Knox._) Be careful, Madge. Remember who is Tommy"s father.
{Margaret}
Tom, honestly, remembering what the last years have been can you imagine that I love you?
{Chalmers}
I"m afraid I"ve not--er--not flamed sufficiently.
{Margaret}
You have possibly spoken nearer the truth than you dreamed. I married you, Tom, hoping great things of you. I hoped you would be a power for good--
{Chalmers}
Politics again. When will women learn they must leave politics alone?
{Margaret}
And also, I hoped for love. I knew you didn"t love me when we married, but I hoped for it to come.
{Chalmers}
And--er--may I be permitted to ask if you loved me?
{Margaret}
No; but I hoped that, too, would come.
{Chalmers}
It was, then, all a mistake.
{Margaret}
Yes; yours, and mine, and my father"s.
{Knox}
We have sat down to reason this out, and we get nowhere. Margaret and I love each other. Your triangle breaks.
{Chalmers}
It isn"t a triangle after all. You forget Tommy.
{Knox} (_Petulantly._) Make it four-sided, then, but let us come to some conclusion.
{Chalmers} (_Reflecting._) Ah, it is more than that. There is a fifth side. There are the stolen letters which Madge has just this morning restolen from her father. Whatever settlement takes place, they must enter into it.
(_Changing his tone._) Look here, Madge, I am a fool. Let us talk sensibly, you and Knox and I. Knox, you want my wife. You can have her--on one consideration. Madge, you want Knox. You can have him on one consideration, the same consideration. Give up the letters and we"ll forget everything.
{Margaret}
Everything?